Recap: St. Louis vs. Boston

St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Jon Jay hit a go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox in their first meeting since last year's World Series.

A.J. Pierzynski poked a two-out single to left against Junichi Tazawa (1-3) in the eighth before Oscar Taveras lined a base hit to right-center to put runners on the corners. Jay then fisted a looping single into shallow left- center to plate the go-ahead run and ex-Red Sox catcher Pierzynski, who was designated for assignment by Boston on July 9.

Trevor Rosenthal tossed a scoreless ninth to notch his 35th save of the year, while Pat Neshek (5-0) struck out the side in the eighth to earn the win.

Pierzynski finished 2-for-3, while starter Lance Lynn allowed two runs -- one earned -- on four hits and a walk over seven innings for the Cardinals, who have won four of their last five games.

Starter Rubby De La Rosa surrendered a run on six hits and three walks over six frames for Boston, which defeated the Cardinals in six games to win last year's World Series for the third time in 10 years.

The Cardinals squandered a leadoff double from Matt Carpenter in the first before Boston wasted Yoenis Cespedes' triple to start the second.

Cespedes reached third when Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong was unable to make a diving grab on the shallow fly to right, caroming off his glove and rolling to the wall in foul territory before a fan reached out to snag the ball for fan interference. Daniel Nava grounded out and Cespedes was nabbed at the plate when Xander Bogaerts chopped one to a drawn-in Carpenter at third base.

St. Louis opened the scoring in the fourth when Matt Holliday hit a one-out double and came home on Matt Adams' roller back up the middle, but the Red Sox got the run back in the fifth on Christian Vasquez's sacrifice fly to right.

The teams traded runs in the seventh.

Cespedes and Nava singled to begin the frame and Bogaerts moved them both over with a sac bunt. Vasquez was then intentionally walked to load the bases. Will Middlebrooks bounced a would-be, double-play ball back to Lynn, but he bobbled the routine grounder and settled for the out at first as Cespedes scampered home to give Boston a 2-1 edge. Pinch-hitter Mike Napoli struck out to end the inning.

"We can work on fielding his position or else he's looking at a win right now," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of Lynn.

Pinch-hitter Shane Robinson worked a one-out walk and advanced to second on a Carpenter groundout in the home half before scoring on Wong's base hit up the middle to tie the game at 2-2.

Game Notes

Allen Craig, who was acquired by Boston along with Joe Kelly from St. Louis as
part of the John Lackey deal before the non-waiver trade deadline last week,
was placed on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a foot injury ... The
Cardinals were 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position, while Boston
finished 0-for-5.